Linux, Ubuntu No comments yet

Mircro$oft at it again — patents SUDO …

By on November 12th, 2009

You do not know what SUDO is .. then you must be a Windows fanboy.  If you use Linux and/or Macs, you will use it on a daily basis.  It is that little command that is in almost every distribution of Linux and also in Mac OSx that elevates your privileges to root for a short while to do things like installing software.

Now Microsoft got it right to patent this.

“Just when you thought all was safe on the crazy patent front, Microsoft has come out of the obvious patent closet to file patent number 7617530, which basically duplicates the functionality of ‘sudo’ which is found in all Linux systems. PJ over at groklaw has a wonderful writeup on the entire fiasco.”


I went to look and saw that the patent date back to only 2005.  SUDO has been in existence since the 1980’s. This just shows how screwed up the US Patent Office is.

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Open Source No comments yet

Google’s own Programming Language — Go!

By on November 11th, 2009

So Phython, C and C++ are not good enough for Google anymore. And it seems it is all about concurrency, speed and getting things done. It’s called GO …

The company says that Go is experimental, and that it combines the performance and security benefits associated with using a compiled language like C++ with the speed of a dynamic language like Python. Go’s official mascot is Gordon the gopher, seen here.

Here’s how Google describes Go in its blog post:

Go attempts to combine the development speed of working in a dynamic language like Python with the performance and safety of a compiled language like C or C++. In our experiments with Go to date, typical builds feel instantaneous; even large binaries compile in just a few seconds. And the compiled code runs close to the speed of C. Go is designed to let you move fast.

We’re hoping Go turns out to be a great language for systems programming with support for multi-processing and a fresh and lightweight take on object-oriented design, with some cool features like true closures and reflection.

For more details check out Golang.org.

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Ubuntu No comments yet

Karmic Network Manager DSL Connections

By on November 3rd, 2009

From my earlier post you will know the problems that Network Manager has with DSL connections.  The latest release (2 November) from Network Manager Daily Build PPA solve some of the problems but not all.

Solved:

  • Non system wide connections now work again.

Not Solved:

  • System wide connection still does not connect
  • The “inefficient privileges” bug is still there.

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Ubuntu 1 comment

Karmic upgrade — Network Manager with DSL connections not working

By on October 31st, 2009

Just upgraded from Jaunty to Karmic on my Desktop and everything went fairly smoothly.  One major issue is that DSL Connections with Network Manager does not work.  This worked fine in Jaunty.  I use a couple of different DSL accounts and switch between them as I need with Network Manager .. that was in Jaunty.  In Karmic this just does not work.  Even the editing of the connection info is buggy.

There are various bugs logged for it and I have even installed from the daily Network Manager PPA without any success.  I know there is a workaround using pppoeconf but this is a pain.  I want Network Manager to work.  This is a major issue and this regression will not go down well. 

Anybody got any solutions .. or got it working.

Hope this gets fixed soon.

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Ubuntu No comments yet

2 Done, 2 to go

By on October 31st, 2009

So what the heck am I talking about.  Since this is suppose to be a technical blog it can only be about Ubuntu and in this case upgrading to Karmic Koala ala Ubuntu 9.10.

  • The first that was running Karmic is my Compaq Laptop and that has been on the Karmic road since Alpha 6 .. it was real fun being on the development road for a release and it is interesting to see how the release develops over time.  Now it is running the released version with no issues.
  • The second machine is a HP Desktop that got a fresh install from the desktop iso to replace Kubuntu 9.04.  Again the install went flawless and this desktop runs perfectly.  This machine has Intel graphics in it and remembering all the pain of Intel and 9.04, I was holding my breath.  Well in 9.10 the graphics works exactly as it should.
  • The next machine is a very old no name Desktop that will go through an Online Upgrade sometime today.  The last clean install of Ubuntu on this machine was 8.04 so it will be an interesting road.  I have read and heard about people that do upgrades, that they had some Grub issues.  Also this machine has an old nVidia graphic card that uses one of the older nVidia drivers.  Holding thumbs that it be will be smooth sailing.
  • The last machine on the list is my work Lenovo Thinkpad T60.  This will only be upgraded in a week or so after internal Ubuntu 9.10 is released to ensure all the IBM products like Notes, Sametime and Symphony works properly.

So far I am really impressed with this version of Ubuntu and where I go I encourage friends and people to change to Ubuntu.

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Linux, Ubuntu No comments yet

Ubuntu 9.10 ala Karmic Koala is out – get it while it is hot.

By on October 30th, 2009

I have been running Ubuntu on multiple machines since around the 7 release and yesterday Karmic Koala officially became Ubuntu 9.10.  I am already running it on one of my laptops and I must say, I am impressed with this release.  In my opinion this is the best Ubuntu release by far.  Congrats to the guys at Ubuntu for a great release – what I will give to be part of this team at Canonical.

Over the weekend I will upgrade one of my Ubuntu Desktops with the online upgrade. I have heard about some issues about the online upgrade but I think it is people that are just a bit impatient and the repositories are overloaded or the mirrors are in an unstable state.  I will wait a bit for things to settle down.  If you did an online upgrade from 9.04 to 9.10 then please comment on your experience.

I will also do a fresh install of Ubuntu on a machine that are runnung Kubuntu.  I just cannot get used to Kubuntu so it is back to Ubuntu.

Grab your copy of the latest here: http://releases.ubuntu.com/karmic/. If you can do it via Bittorrent then so much better.  Ubuntu is all about sharing so go ahead and share that bandwidth

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Ubuntu No comments yet

APT-GET performance improvement

By on October 14th, 2009

On some network connections (particularly my corporate network), I had this issue when APT-GET was updating the repositories or downloading packages that it just would stand still for a minute or so and continue then.  This would happen after every 100KB or so.  I have found the following settings that improved the performance a lot and the stand still totally disappeared.  Enter the following in a terminal:
sudo gedit /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/80http
If the file 80http does not exist then create it.

Add the following lines to the file:

Acquire::http::Pipeline-Depth "0";
Acquire::http::No-Cache "true";
Acquire::http::Max-Age "0";

Save the file and now APT-GET should fly with your updates.

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ibm No comments yet

Paul Thurrott – no wonder nobody takes you serious.

By on October 3rd, 2009

In the latest email newsletter from Paul Thurrott he had the following piece of wisdom:

Oh Good, I Was Just Hoping for Another Webmail Solution
IBM continued its long slide into irrelevancy this week by releasing yet another corporate email solution that no one was asking for. Actually, it’s more of a competitor for Google Apps, I guess, since it includes web-based contacts and calendar management in addition to email. Dubbed LotusLive iNotes (yes, really), the IBM solution will set businesses back $3 per user per month, which nicely undercuts both Google Apps Premier Edition (which is $50 per user per year) and Microsoft’s various hosted solutions. However, it doesn’t undercut Google Apps Standard Edition, which is free—and is also, of course, the one everyone uses. But if the IBM solution has a real downside, it’s that it’s made by IBM … and based on Lotus Notes. I mean, seriously, people. That is just so 1990s.

Now we all already know that he is so bias towards Microsoft that anything he say, one should take with a pinch of salt.  But this just goes to show the man’s ignorance.  In all likelihood he has not seen what Lotus Notes looks like these days.  I use both the latest version of Notes and iNotes and coupled with the fact that I can use and access these products from anywhere, whether it be a Windows, Linux or Mac platform makes it so much better and easier to use than any other competing product.  Paul, I suggest you for once get out under that Microsoft bed and see what wonderful world awaits you on the outside.

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hardware No comments yet

Why did Compaq (HP) do this?

By on September 26th, 2009

This is from my Lenovo T60:

and this is from my Compaq Presario CQ61-140EI:

Notice the difference?  Yes, the FN and CNTRL keys are swopped around.  Imagine the confusing it is causing.  I am pressing CNTRL-C and CNTRL-V but nothing gets copied.  That is because of pressing the CNTRL key, I am pressing the FN key and visa versa when I want to adjust the sound or something and nothing happens since I am pressing the CNTRL key in this case in stead of the FN key.

Is there not a standard for these kind of things?  If there is not, then there should be. This is driving me crasy and I use both machines on a daily basis.

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ibm, Linux, Ubuntu No comments yet

IBM and Canonical takes on Africa

By on September 23rd, 2009

From Bob Sutor’s blog

… partnership between IBM and Canonical to provide a software package for users of netbooks and other thin clients in Africa. The package, which can be configured in several ways to provide both netbook-based and cloud-based software, is expected to drive new business for local partners by taking advantage of open standards, file sharing, email, and social network capabilities.

This is very relevant to me and where I am.  The CEO of Canonical, Mark Shuttleworth, is a South African and I work for IBM in Africa, and South Africa in particular.

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